Olive tree bonsai

7 years ago

last modified: 7 years ago

I was given an Arbequina olive tree in a 3-gallon pot. It hasn't been cared for well, so it's sort of spindly and unshapely. I don't have anywhere to actually plant it, so I decided to try to bonsai it. I don't care if it ever has olives, because from what I read, they are a pain to process. I like fruit that can be eaten right off the tree.

Should I put it into fresh soil and let it get a bit healthier before I do it? It's been in this pot for at least 4 years, half the soil is gone, and although it doesn't look unhealthy, it could definitely use some TLC. Should I keep it in a 3-gallon for now or move it to a 5-gallon to let it get taller like I want it?

This is a picture of it. I staked it because it was literally laying on its side, since so much soil had run out of the pot. As you can see, it has pretty spindly trunks right now. I have them tied sort of together, but I'd like them to spread further apart. Should I start staking them the way I want them to grow once I repot it, and train a leader on each to grow taller until it gets the height I want?

This is sort of what I'm going for with the trunks, but not so much growth on top.

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Comments (6)

dirtygardener
Original Author
7 years ago
No one has a comment? Strange.
tropicofcancer (6b SW-PA)
7 years ago
It will be hard to correct that spindly growth quickly. Olive needs to be pruned often during the growing season to keep it from growing long thin branches like yours. You should try to get it in a nice well draining soil and give it as much Sun as possible. Prune all the branches as much as you can tolerate to a few leaves and let it grow. Prune new tips regularly to force it to make branches.

It will take time for the stem to thicken up. If it is healthy (yours looks good) it can be chopped hard to where your tie point (or even lower) is and let it grow and prune regularly. That will encourage the the trunk to thicken up.
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dirtygardener
Original Author
7 years ago
Thanks tropicofcancer! That's most helpful. I don't think I want to whack it completely back, because I want it to be a little taller than it is, but I had already planned on doing some fierce pruning of the branches. It's amazing how healthy it is after being set in the shade and not fertilized or care for at all, except to water it, for years. Just imagine what it will do when I start loving on it.
tropicofcancer (6b SW-PA)
7 years ago
You have to also aim to fatten up the trunk and for that you need more branches and leaves as low as possible on the trunk. Higher branches and leaves are not very helpful in fattening up the trunk. Imagine this: 10 leaves 6 inches up from the trunk will have to feed only 6 inches of the trunk below to fatten it up. Whereas 10 leaves 2 foot up the trunk will have to spread out the food over a larger mass of the trunk/branches and it would not be as effective.
dirtygardener
Original Author
7 years ago
I just went out and looked at it, and the trunks are about 2 ft. tall. I want them to be 3 ft. tall, but neither of them has a viable top branch to train as a leader, because they were evidently topped out before, and all the limbs are growing horizontally. I want the main trunks to be at least 3 feet tall, so if I trim and leave all the lower branches to feed the trunk, do I need to top it out again to get a leader from the top, or can I just trim the top branches back drastically and hope I get a leader out of that? It seems that if I leave all the lower branches, the top isn't going to put out much growth if I top them off.

I don't know anything about olives. If you lop a branch off a half-inch from the trunk, will it put out growth from the crotch, or close to it so I can make another leader?

Things grow fast down here in FL, so I should have it as tall as I want it by next fall if I feed it plenty of nitrogen.
tropicofcancer (6b SW-PA)
7 years ago
You can always wire a soft branch to become the leader. Or use a stick in the pot to direct the branch to become a leader. In time it will harden and keep that shape. A healthy olive can be chopped drastically and will bud out profusely close to the cut point. In bonsai it is done all the time.